Richard Millett queries Israeli Arab MK at London event through torrent of abuse.

There was a burning question at the back of my mind when two highly successful Israeli Arabs came to London today to tell a crowd of 100 people at the P21 Gallery how oppressive Israel is towards its Arab citizens which make up 20% of Israel’s population.

For one hour I sat listening to Israeli Arab MK Dr. Yousef T. Jabareen tell us how Israel “treats its indigenous people as second and third class citizens” and how “Israeli law is similar to the racial classification during racial apartheid in America” and how Israel is “a Jewish state for its Arab citizens but a democracy only for its Jewish citizens”.

He told us how there’s a big difference in the education, welfare and infrastructure budgets between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. Nine to one, apparently.

I listened to Liberal Democrat Baroness Hussein-Ece OBE, who was chairing the event, complain that “a country that claims to be a democracy deprives people of freedom of speech”.

While Dr. Durgham Saif said “Israel is a fine democracy, but only for Jews” and how “Israel appropriates Palestinian land and Judaises it by transferring it to Jews” and that “We are the Indians of America”.

Then Malia Bouattia,the Black Students’ Officer of the National Union of Students, compared Israel’s apparent oppressive treatment of its Arab citizens to the UK’ “targeting of Muslims and pro-Palestine activists”. She claimed that “UK Muslims find their democratic freedoms are comprehensively stripped”.

And she seriously thinks that in this country “discussion about Palestine is all but illegitimate” which she blamed on “the Zionist and Neocon lobbies”.

Ben “I do not considermyself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are” White was the final speaker. He referred to Israel as the “so-called Jewish state” before calling for Israel to become a “state of all it citizens, not a Jewish state”.

Then I had my arm up for another 55 minutes during the Q&A. The Baroness called everyone else in the room who wished to ask a question but ignored me. I asked if I could ask a question but she again ignored me. I then asked her why she was ignoring me and suggested she was doing it purposely to which she replied she didn’t know who I was.

So with two minutes left I rose and spoke. I just about managed to ask Dr. Yousef T. Jabareen how could he accuse Israel of oppressing its Arab citizens, of being undemocratic and of so under-funding the Israeli Arab education system when he himself was a Member of Parliament, a lecturer at the University of Haifa and Tel-Hai Academic College, had studied in Washington and was now here in London verbally attacking Israel?

I received such loud boos, hisses and abuse as I stood there that I swiftly took my seat. Needless to say I would have asked the same of Dr Durgham Saif, Professor at Al-Quds University in Abu-Dis, who also studied and lectured in Washingtonand who is a member of the Israeli Bar Association.

But by then I had already been shouted at by the Baroness for “disrespecting the meeting”.

In fairness to Dr Jabareen he listened to my question and answered, albeit unsatisfactorily. He simply [misleadingly] claimed that he was not allowed to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque and that many Israeli Arab leaders were banned from leaving Israel.

Meanwhile P21 itself is quickly becoming a hub of hate with constant anti-Israel lectures to the wider public. During the Q&A a young Romanian woman said she loved Jewish culture but not what Israel was doing to the Palestinians and she asked what she could do to help. Malia Bouattia said she should join the BDS movement.

One audience member did ask why we don’t hear from the other side to which Ben White, laughably, responded that Israel’s message is dominant in the media so there is no need to have any balance at events like today’s.

In 20 years time the lunatics in these audiences lapping up this extreme anti-Israel propaganda will have taken over the asylum so I just don’t understand why our supposed Jewish leadership organisations (JLC, BICOM, ZF, Board of Deputies etc.) are abdicating all responsibility where these horrendous events are concerned.

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All the Arabs living in Israel who feel “as second and third class citizens” and live in racial apartheid a Jewish state for its Arab citizens but a democracy only for its Jewish citizens”.

“How there’s a big difference in the education, welfare and infrastructure budgets between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. Nine to one, apparently depriving people of freedom of speech”. Can pack up and move to one of the Democratic Arabic States if they wish.

The reason why ” lunatics in these audiences lapping up this extreme anti-Israel propaganda will have taken over the asylum so I just don’t understand why our supposed Jewish leadership organisations (JLC, BICOM, ZF, Board of Deputies etc.) are abdicating all responsibility where these horrendous events are concerned” is because it has been the so called leadership policy to bury their respective and collective heads in the sand in the hope that it will all go away in time.
Wirh such poor and pathetic lay and religious leadership the community deserve all they get in backlashes from the goyim – it is time for a complete change

I’ll second that. Sid. We are represented by elected and self-appointed ghetto Jews and appeasers who don’t want to stand up to to our enemies in case we offend them. Thank God for the grassroots activists – individuals and organisations like the SFI, GFI NWFI, C4T etc – because they are the ones who can see the problem clearly, who are prepared to speak out and fight back to the best of their ability.

I’ve often used the football analogy when describing the situation. There are teams who go into a match not wanting to lose – at least, not by too much – so their pilosophy is to defend. Then there are those who actually want to win and who attack the other side. Sadly our communal leaders favour the former. We need people with the balls and the money who want to win to take control of our destiny.

By the way the most highly educated sector in Israel are the Arab Christians. Obviously the problem is not with being an Arab. Being poor and educated has more to do with ones religion than anything else.

These ‘fine’ people at this meeting seethe about Israel’s vibrant and liberal democracy. Less than 70 years old, Israel stands alone in the Middles East with such a successful democracy. If I was an activist Muslim living anywhere in the world, I would probably hate Israel for showing how far backward Islamism is. How confining. How violent. How unsuccessful at building just successful states.

Not that Israel is perfect. Far from it. But it’s justice system, in spite of attacks from the right wing and religious groups in Israel, stands firm. Dispensing judicial material that is, so I am told, referenced from other vibrant democracies.

Perhaps if Israel was ….. less successful, in may not attract the antipathy and hatred of radical Islamists and their radical left wing enablers.